Travis Lester confessed he thought about attacking his mother and father for “a day or two” before carrying it out — yet told police he hadn’t wanted to do it. Now, he’ll spend more than a decade behind bars.
A 40-year-old Minnesota man will spend more than a decade in prison after confessing to one of the most chilling details a detective could hear: he had thought about stabbing his parents for days before he finally did it — and yet, he told officers, he hadn’t wanted to go through with it at all.
Travis Lester of Champlin, Minnesota, was sentenced on May 8, 2026 to 11 years in prison — with credit for 245 days already served — after pleading guilty in April to two counts of attempted second-degree murder. The charges stem from a brutal knife attack on his own mother and father inside their home on the evening of September 5, 2025.
It began with a 911 call just before 6 p.m. Dispatchers could hear nothing but fumbling on the line, then a single cry of “No.” Moments later, a neighbor called back — they had found a woman outside the house, covered in blood.
When officers arrived at the Champlin residence, they found Lester’s father on a backyard privacy deck, barely upright, gripping the railing with blood-soaked hands. He had been stabbed in the neck, chest, abdomen, and hand. Still conscious, he told police his son had attacked both him and his wife — and that his son had done it in what he described as a “drug-induced rage.”
“He had been thinking about doing it for a day or two,” Lester told investigators — adding, almost in the same breath, that he “didn’t want to” go through with it.
Lester’s mother was found at a neighbor’s home, having fled there after being stabbed in her neck, chest, abdomen, and arms. Both parents were rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Against the odds, they both survived.
Police tracked Lester to a silver Buick Lucerne. During a traffic stop, officers spotted a kitchen knife on the seat matching a set from the victims’ home. In the cup holder sat a jar officers believe contained methamphetamine.
Lester confessed on the scene. His explanation was as troubling as the crime itself: premeditated, yet reluctant — planned, yet regretted. The contradiction offered little comfort to the family he left bleeding.
He entered a formal guilty plea on April 10, 2026. The sentencing, handed down on May 8, closes the criminal case — though the questions his statement raises are far harder to put away.
